It has come to light that Nintendo’s newest portable gaming console, the Nintendo 2DS, appears to have two separate screens, but in reality has only one. The system actually employs a unique single-screen design, with the extraneous parts of its one screen hidden by the hardware to create the impression that two screens are present. This means that both the top and bottom portions of the screen are touch-sensitive, but the top portion is simply covered by a layer of plastic to conceal it from human hands. In addition to its reduced battery life and monaural audio output, this single-screen layout allowed Nintendo to cut costs on the 2DS even further. The handheld will retail for $129.99 upon its October 12th launch.

Nintendo announced the release of the new portable console on Wednesday, revealing that it will play both 3DS and Nintendo DS games, while retaining all of the gameplay…